ThinktoSustain.com: What are the major challenges for corporate leaders in adopting sustainability reporting?
Nelmara Arbex: The decision to publish a sustainability report relies on the hands of the ‘C suit’.
Let’s start by saying that there are no CEOs or CFOs that don’t know what a non-financial report is about. They do know, otherwise they wouldn’t be in business. But they are often not ready to start measuring and reporting on their sustainability impacts because of different reasons: They are not sure what to report on, they don’t understand the legal consequences of such a report, the data gathering systems are not ready to collect such data, and quite often, they are not sure what should they do when they know the data.
This is exactly the reason why the publication of a sustainability report has become an indicator of the quality of management and of business strategy. There is a big difference between a team of executives that understands these issues and is ready to deal with them, and one that is not.
About Ms. Nelmara Arbex
Nelmara Arbex is Deputy Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Nelmara joined the GRI Secretariat in July 2006 as Director for Learning and Services. She is responsible for developing the program and content of the Learning Services Department, which supports reporters and report users in their use of the GRI Guidelines.
Nelmara joined GRI with a wealth of experience in corporate responsibility and sustainable development. She was manager for Corporate Responsibility at Natura Cosmetics, Brazil for three years. In that role, she developed and implemented a management system for corporate responsibility, led participatory processes of sustainable development planning with communities, implemented national social and environmental campaigns, and was responsible for the company’s internal sustainability program for managers. She also coordinated the preparation of the company’s annual sustainability report.
Nelmara was manager of Knowledge and International Relations at Ethos Institute, Brazil from 2001 to 2003. She was involved in developing CSR management tools, establishing partnerships with academia, managing relations with international partners, and provided strategic guidance to companies about their social and environmental responsibilities and annual report processes. In addition to area coordination, Nelmara also collaborated and co-authored several publications, including books, manuals and research papers, and coordinated learning activities such as a CSR course at FGV Business School, and sessions at Ethos’s annual conference. Prior to working at Ethos, she was an associate consultant at McKinsey, São Paulo, Brazil.
Nelmara holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Marburg University, Germany (1997) and has been involved in many social and political activities of different civil organizations. She is currently an author of the Portuguese sustainability website and blog Sustentabilidade com Pimenta (www.sustentabilidadecompimenta.com.br).
About Global Reporting Initiative
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a network-based non-governmental organization that aims to drive sustainability reporting by all organizations. GRI produces the world’s most widely used Sustainability Reporting Framework to enable this drive towards greater transparency. The Framework, incorporating the Reporting Guidelines, sets out the Principles and Indicators organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. GRI is committed to continuously improving and increasing the use of the Guidelines, which are freely available to the public. For more information, visit www.globalreporting.org.
Green Dialogues is a brand forum of ThinktoSustain.com engaging thought-leaders in a dialogue on emerging sustainability issues. In case of any query related to this feature, do drop in a mail to editor@thinktosustain.com.
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